Mystery Plane Haunts Neighborhood for Weeks

Residents in the Arden neighborhood in Sacramento County, California have been complaining for weeks about a low-flying single-engine plane that circles their area night and day.

A local television station finally went out to investigate and found that what residents were saying was right. The plane was circling again and again. One resident said that the plane would be circling when he went to bed, and there again when he woke.

Some area residents took to online flight path tools and found the plane’s recent activity. Curiously, unlike other planes found on those sites, there is no identifying information about that plane.

The station called the Federal Aviation Administration, but apparently the plane was flying low enough that it did not need to interact with the FAA or air traffic control. The FAA said it had no idea what the plane was.

Some folks theorized that it might be the Drug Enforcement Agency, looking for heat signatures from “grow houses” – marijuana growing operations in suburban homes that use “grow lights” for their crops. That notion bothered neighbors, who were concerned about what sort of element might be doing business near their homes.

Finally, the FAA looked into the matter and said that the aircraft is military.

ABC News reports that FAA spokesman Allen Kenitzer told them, “This is a U.S. military training aircraft. It’s a T-38 performing pattern work, and he is totally authorized and legal.” The pilot is practicing takeoffs and landings, Kenitzer explained.

That might make people feel somewhat better, but the problem now is that this flying pattern can go on indefinitely, circling neighborhoods, buzzing along. The FAA notes that residents can file the usual noise complaint paperwork at the airport.